Right. I’ve decided its time to get the photoblog back on the go. Since Erica was born I’ve had neither the time nor the energy to keep it up but enough is enough.

Two things have got my enthusiasm and energy level back up for this. I’ve got a fortnights holiday starting next week and we’ll at least be spending a few days on the east coast an maybe fit in a trip elsewhere as well. A photography forum I am a member of has also started a mini competition running alongside a main competition. The main one gives me a chance of winning some weird monopod/pouchpod thingie for every post I make and the the mini one gets me put forward for display on the sites front page each week. Basically their assignments are going to slightly more strict for a change. You get two weeks to get a photo taken and uploaded on a specific theme and the best one wins. I doubt I’ll win but its the taking part that counts as they say. Also each photo I post makes my chance of winning the main prize a little better The other reason is that Alt Nation is changing the way its photography forum works and a small camera club seems to be starting with folk from AN running the show.

Anyone ever watch Long Way Round? Ever wish you could go on a once in a lifetime journey like that? Well Ewan and Charlie are doing it again but instead they are going from John O’Groats to the southern tip of Africa. I think they just made Tunisia yesterday so theyve been on the road for about a week so far.

Once again they are doing the riding with Claudio the cameraman and the support team in tow and trying to raise awareness of the problems on route by supporting the UNICEF projects they visit. The thing I loved about the original was they were going to places I’d longed to visit but had never really seen on TV. Places such as Mongolia as a whole or Magadan have always been in my top 5 places to see and I think this was where my enjoyment of the program differend from alot of peoples. I just watched it for the places they visited, nothing at all to do with Ewan or the bikes. Now with them heading through Africa I’m curious to see the route they will be going and whats in store for them.

Apparently this one started being planned as they rode into New York at the end of their previous 3 month trip around the world but with all the troubles and hard terrain they encountered in Asia I was never sure Ewan would be up for it. Charlie got some practice is when he did the Paris - Dakar rally in 2006 but I think the other two riders may struggle.

Anyway the website is up now and you can follow them on thier journey by checking out their travel log and film thats being uploaded every few days to the BBC website. Should hopefully be on the BBC in September I think.

Now I think they are cheating with this pic. Thats taken at the start of Glen Coe at the Kings House Hotel looking up at Buachaille Etive Mor. Now as I understand it they went down the east coast so they could pop in on Ewans parents in Fife. So why tease us with the carrot of them driving down Glen Coe?

This weekends been a quiet one despite actually doing quite a bit.

Friday night was a QNI as far as I can remember…I think we watched Batman on DVD but that might have been one night during the week.

Saturday was meant to be spent finishing off tidying Vonnie flat as Lizzie was coming round that night for a bite to eat and to see the flat before we headed off to meet Finn’s dad, Alan, and going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the IMAX. Turns out Lizzy had called it off so we had a day to arse about. Idragged Findlay into the city centre so I could get a buss pass and get him a policemans outfit…I hate noisy toys…im stupid…which he loved.

I’d never been tothe IMAX before…I was expecting somethign huge but from the outside it actually looks kind of tiny and a bit of a let down. We’d been in a bit of a rush to get there becuase Finn wasnt feeling very well and Vonnie thought there would be trialers or adverts beforehand…there wasnt. So we wandered in about 5 mins into the film just as Charlies Grandpa was telling his story about working there before all the Oompa-Loompa’s took over. As they dont assign seats the way normal cinemas do they just fill it up from the back to the front…We ended up on the 2nd front row. I dont think ive been in a cinema where ive had to move my head to see either side of the screen before and because we were constantly having to look up at the screen our necks were killing us. The film was good though and some of the scenesreally did make the IMAX a good choice in viewing it at. The scene on the boat was probably the best for it. Wasn’t impressed with the Oompa-loompas though. I liked what they were trying to do but the CGI was almost useless…I could probably do better myself…to rough around the edges.And whatthe hell were The Darkness doing in the film?

Surprisingly everything seemed to go OK and there wasnt really any weirdness between Alan, Vonnie or myself. Quite an achievement considering its the first time we’ve socialised together other than at the flats doorway when Alan comes to collect Finn.

Sunday was supposed to be a trip to Deep Sea World followed a night out to the End Of The Month club…We went through to DSW alright but we never made it back to Glasgow in time for the EotMC.

A grey day in Glasgow turned into a scorching day on the east coast so Vonnie’s moonboots had to go and Finn’s chunky jumper had to come off. a lot of folk say that DSW is expensive and you can go round it in 20 minutes…and you can if you rush round. I really enjoyed it. It’s not worth the cash but at least you can see where the money goes which is something that you dont get in a lot of places as the bosses bank account is usually well hidden on some Carribean island. Some of the tanks were fantastic and the I have to agree with Vonnie that you could spend hours just standing watching the seals swimming and playing.

As for the the main attraction of the place…the sharks. I have three main phobias in life. One is sharks, the other is small places and the last one is spiders. I can sort of deal with spiders after having to deal with the smaller ones for so long but dont expect me to stay in the same room as a big bastard for any longer than I need to. The underwater tunnel, which btw is the longest in the world so they proudly tell you, was probably what you could call “Bob’s Hell on a Travelator”. Everything in the tunnel was dark apart from the lights along the ground…the rest of the light came from the pool itself. I could just about deal with the fish. I was quite uncomfortable with the tunnel but as you couldnt really look sideways throught he acrylic it was that thick you were stuck staring at a small spot in front of you…if was like a strange tank rather than a tunnel. Then everyone would point and you’d see there heads go up and turn as something went over your head…so you look…and theres a bloody great shark less than a foot above you. I say “bloody great shark”…what I mean to say is a 5-6′ shark swam above my head. I started to sweat and really didnt like that place. Vonnie thought I was putting it on a bit so tried to have a laugh with me…then she realised I wasnt putting it on. Now to go throughthe tunnel you don’t just walk…you get on a moving floor just like the ones at the baggage reclaim in the airports…with all the squeaking and squaking that goes along with them and it must have a maximum speed of about 0.003mph. We hadn’t seen feeding time which was one of the main attractions so I though “I’ve made it round once..i can make it round againto see the fish getting fed”. When we got back round we seen the divers and I remembered what the girl had said about the ‘glass’ making everything seem to be 1/3rd smaller than it actually was. The guy looked like an Oompa-loopa! Then she mentioned in passing thatthe big 6′ shark we’d seen was actually about 9′ long! Fuck! That!

We soon got out of there and cooled down in the cafe before heading over to South Queensferry for some fresh air before ehading back to drop of Vonnie’s Dad and Leslie. This is where Vonnie fell asleep on their couch and we ended up staying for dinner. Vonnie’s dad makes a damn fine curry despite not knowing exactly what its meant to be…I thought it was very like a madras at first but then he added coconut milk to it to calm it down a little so I’ve no idea what it ended up being. Went home and fell asleep after a little bit of knackering my brain out with some golf on my phone.

Today’s tasks include loads of crap at work and going to see a mortgage adviser at lunchtme to see if theres anyway I can get a mortgage. The flats went up a wee bit in value so hopelfully it will be enough but we’ll see.